Portsmouth Woman's Death Under Investigation

RICHMOND — The illness and Wednesday death of a Portsmouth woman spurred a Virginia Department of Health investigation Thursday.

The woman suffered from encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease. Her illness has been linked in news reports to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease - the human form of mad cow disease.

It's a very rare condition related to the consumption of beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It's always fatal, the health department said in a news release.

The woman's name was not released by the health department but news reports have identified her as Aretha Vinson.

The illness could have been caused by a number of things, State Health Commissioner Karen Remley said in the release.

"Infections, lack of oxygen to the brain, liver failure, kidney failure, toxic exposures, metabolic diseases, brain tumors, increased intracranial pressure and poor nutrition are all related to encephalopathy," Remley said. "Further testing is the only way to know what caused this illness."

An MRI, or brain scan, was sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Additional tests will be handled by the University of Virginia and the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Cleveland. Results are expected to take several months.

At least 200 cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease have been reported worldwide since 1996. Three cases have been reported in U.S. residents, and they were all exposed outside the country, Remley said. It's not spread casually from person to person.

For more information, visit cdc.gov, cjdfoundation.org or vdh.virginia.gov.